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Let It Be Our Ruin
Crisscrossing through the small towns of Argentina to find a rare rock album, a middle-school teacher from Texas is forced to confront his understanding of the past. Through the language of music, Let It Be Our Ruin examines the myths of identity and historic realities. Rumors about a musician whose fame peaked during the Argentine Dirty War and teenage gossip about a high-school friend harmonize with the stories of nations to create a composition about grief, the multiple ways of speaking truth, and the blues.
"Let It Be Our Ruin is a profound and elegiac novella about exile and friendship. Williams is a graceful, stunning new talent. Following the quest for a mysterious rare album and an Argentine musician whose legacy was nearly forgotten after the Dirty War, Let It Be Our Ruin reveals the vast and intimate ways in which music and loss binds us across myth, language, and shattered histories." ~ Michael Zapata, author of The Lost Book of Adana Moreau
"On the surface, Lee Tyler Williams’s novella is a story about a music collector who embarks on a trip to find an obscure record, but at its core, it’s a story about history, loss and love. Its trip into the wilds of obsession asks us to look at what drives us (those shadows of fascination we cannot shake from us). Encyclopedic and shrewd in its cultural observations, Let It Be Our Ruin is an enthralling bifurcated ethnography that sings a wondrous song and we’d be well served to listen." ~ duncan b. barlow, author of A Dog Between Us, The City, Awake, and Of Flesh and Fur
"Lee Tyler Williams has written a charring and delightful quest novel that is a must read for anyone who has sought the answers to the universe's deepest questions in music and travel. Part bonfire ash and part bougainvillea petals, Let It Be Our Ruin is a gem for wayward souls to snuggle against. A super cool novella!!!" ~ Brian Allen Carr, author of Opioid, Indiana
"Let It Be Our Ruin is a profound and elegiac novella about exile and friendship. Williams is a graceful, stunning new talent. Following the quest for a mysterious rare album and an Argentine musician whose legacy was nearly forgotten after the Dirty War, Let It Be Our Ruin reveals the vast and intimate ways in which music and loss binds us across myth, language, and shattered histories." ~ Michael Zapata, author of The Lost Book of Adana Moreau
"On the surface, Lee Tyler Williams’s novella is a story about a music collector who embarks on a trip to find an obscure record, but at its core, it’s a story about history, loss and love. Its trip into the wilds of obsession asks us to look at what drives us (those shadows of fascination we cannot shake from us). Encyclopedic and shrewd in its cultural observations, Let It Be Our Ruin is an enthralling bifurcated ethnography that sings a wondrous song and we’d be well served to listen." ~ duncan b. barlow, author of A Dog Between Us, The City, Awake, and Of Flesh and Fur
"Lee Tyler Williams has written a charring and delightful quest novel that is a must read for anyone who has sought the answers to the universe's deepest questions in music and travel. Part bonfire ash and part bougainvillea petals, Let It Be Our Ruin is a gem for wayward souls to snuggle against. A super cool novella!!!" ~ Brian Allen Carr, author of Opioid, Indiana
182 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 31, 2020
This novel is magnificent on many levels. The story is compelling from the first page to the last. The writing flows with a literary flare. The depictions of the history and culture come across as both believable and well-researched. More importantly, there is a depth to this novel that will leave its readers thinking long after the finale.
(Note: Though it is billed as a novella, I refer to it here as a novel because, make no mistake, it is. It has the weight and depth of a novel, both literally and metaphorically).
Let It Be Our Ruin uses as its chief conceit an Ahab-like quest for the incredibly rare final album of Argentinean performer known as Nicasia. It takes the protagonist on a journey through the small towns and strange record shops of Argentina. From the outset, the reader feels the narrator's compulsion, hunger, need to find this album. I confess, at first, the concept of the book reminded of the 1980s movie Crossroads about a privileged young man's search for a "lost" song from the late Robert Johnson. In Let It Be Our Ruin, however, the narrator has deeper, more personal reasons for seeking out this Grail of music, all of which are revealed slowly throughout the course of the novel. It's beautifully done, and a narrative masterfully conveyed.
Author Lee Tyler Williams has created a complex story about three different men (the narrator, his friend, and the musician Nicasia), all of whom face struggles, doubts, shattered illusions, and awakenings of different and sometimes tragic sorts. He weaves these three lives together with a smoothness as though he is merely filming real events, his pen substituted for the camera's lens, his voice replacing the audio track.
I can't say enough about this book. It had me mesmerized and not wanting it to end.
Highly recommended for fans of great literature, music, or searching for meaning in a life where there appears to be none. Give it a shot.
(Note: Though it is billed as a novella, I refer to it here as a novel because, make no mistake, it is. It has the weight and depth of a novel, both literally and metaphorically).
Let It Be Our Ruin uses as its chief conceit an Ahab-like quest for the incredibly rare final album of Argentinean performer known as Nicasia. It takes the protagonist on a journey through the small towns and strange record shops of Argentina. From the outset, the reader feels the narrator's compulsion, hunger, need to find this album. I confess, at first, the concept of the book reminded of the 1980s movie Crossroads about a privileged young man's search for a "lost" song from the late Robert Johnson. In Let It Be Our Ruin, however, the narrator has deeper, more personal reasons for seeking out this Grail of music, all of which are revealed slowly throughout the course of the novel. It's beautifully done, and a narrative masterfully conveyed.
Author Lee Tyler Williams has created a complex story about three different men (the narrator, his friend, and the musician Nicasia), all of whom face struggles, doubts, shattered illusions, and awakenings of different and sometimes tragic sorts. He weaves these three lives together with a smoothness as though he is merely filming real events, his pen substituted for the camera's lens, his voice replacing the audio track.
I can't say enough about this book. It had me mesmerized and not wanting it to end.
Highly recommended for fans of great literature, music, or searching for meaning in a life where there appears to be none. Give it a shot.
November 2, 2019
Let It Be Our Ruin is a profound and elegiac novella
about exile and friendship. Williams is a graceful, stunning new talent. Following the quest for a mysterious rare album and an Argentine musician whose legacy was nearly forgotten after the Dirty War, Let It Be Our Ruin reveals the vast and intimate ways in which music and loss binds us across myth, language, and shattered histories
about exile and friendship. Williams is a graceful, stunning new talent. Following the quest for a mysterious rare album and an Argentine musician whose legacy was nearly forgotten after the Dirty War, Let It Be Our Ruin reveals the vast and intimate ways in which music and loss binds us across myth, language, and shattered histories
February 6, 2021
Good writing, exciting, enthralling, relatable story, great ending
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews